A Few Winks of Sleep
by 15bubbles
Summary: Storm Knight: Working Hours from 5 A.M. to 3 A.M. daily. During these hours, all the Storm Knight sees are lines of text, ink stains, and blurry outlines of things he should wink at. Although some days require more than just a bit of editing and revision.
1. Chapter 1: The Spellcheck Knight

Thank the God of Light I do not own Legend of the Sun Knight! That would be a disaster!

I am a knight. To be precise, I am the Storm Knight of the Church of the God of Light. To give further information, I am the secretary for Church of the God of Light, and my working hours are from 5 A.M. to 3 A.M. I really hate my job, but being the Storm Knight is a job you cannot regret, cannot change professions, and can only continue to be one until you retire or die. Ah... If only I'd been a little slower in the running races to judge the potential Storm Knights' speeds... Then I wouldn't be here trying to crack open this stubborn walnut!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" _I don't have the time to waste trying to pry you open! There's too many papers waiting for me back in my room!_ The walnut slipped from my hands and rolled across the floor. My foot darted out.

Crack. _At least it's open now. Although Ice would probably be furious if I added a walnut I used my boot to smash into his brownie recipe._ It wasn't my intention to actually stomp on the walnut, more like a bad habit from when I was a kid. Crushing walnuts that way might have been how I ended up having the hardest, fastest kicks out of the Storm Knight candidates. And how I ended up being the Storm Knight...

I slapped my face. _No daydreaming!_ The Pope wanted thirty batches of walnut brownies for a yearly meeting with the richest merchants of Leaf Bud City, to encourage them to donate some of the profits the God of Light had generously endowed them with to the Church. Normally, this kind of thing would obviously fall to Ice, but due to a sudden outbreak of demon wolves in the west of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, Ice and his platoon were dispatched to deal with them, since his platoon was the only one capable of wielding ice magic to douse any fires that started.

I sighed. Of course I had to skip the emergency meeting about this (as usual), which meant that the unwanted task fell to me (as usual). I'd overheard that Leaf had volunteered to help out instead, nice guy that he is, but the idea was vetoed on the grounds that brownies green with seasonings could no longer be called "brownies." Still, an extra hand would have been great to have with some of these tasks. For example, Ice's original recipe called for one cup of chopped walnutts for each batch, which meant I would need to shell enough walnuts to make thirty cups.

_ Wait a moment..._ I urgently scanned the ingredients list over again.

"One cup of _walnutts_?!" My eye twitched. Maybe it was a single typo. It _had _to be a single typo... After all, people make mistakes like that a lot, especially some of the rookie holy knights and clerics who are new to filling out their paperwork and are unfamiliar with the terminology involved with the Church. Fixing all those mistakes cost me so much valuable time and ink! _Too much waste! Too much inefficiency! _I tried to calmly read the recipe again, searching for a reassuring correctly spelled "walnut. _Walnutt. Walnutts. Walnutts. Walnutt._

_ How can it be misspelled every single time?!_ I quickly grabbed my pen and bottle of ink, useful things I can never go without. I carefully crossed out each "walnutt" and "walnutts" with a single straight line and neatly wrote their correct spellings above them. I felt a bit of satisfaction knowing I would leave this recipe behind as a more perfect version, free from "walnutts."

Looking at the recipe like this, I noted it was considerably shorter than the recipe for the caramel brownies Ice usually makes for after-dinner dessert at the Church mess hall, since it also included the steps to make the caramel as well. Before leaving, Ice seemed to have considerately bookmarked the simplest brownie recipe to whoever was unfortunate enough to attempt the task without an experienced baker (i.e. him) on hand.

Scanning though the complicated recipe for the caramel, I felt very fortunate that most of the sweets served to those bourgeois snobs would be from bakeries around the city, so the results of my confections would be hidden among the masses. _Oh. Ice accidentally wrote "vannila extract" here. I'll go fix that._ I edited the error in a similar way as before.

_ Doesn't my recipe need vanilla extract too? I wonder where he keeps it..._ I walked over to the cupboard where I had seen many small bottles and canisters earlier. _Hm._ Cilantro. Nutmeg. Mace. Cinnamon. Poppy seeds. Cloves. Coryander. I quickly edited the label. Ginger. Lemon zest. Lavandar. I fixed that label too. Peppermint._ Found it! _Vannila. It was all the way at the front of the cupboard too. I must have overlooked it. _But dear God of Light, it Ice can't spell at all. If he corrected more documents, his spelling wouldn't be in such a state! Although, fixing his mistakes on top of the newbies' errors would just add to my workload..._

Holding the vanilla extract carefully, I walked back to my baking station and placed it next to the mixing bowl. Then with my inked pen in hand, I skimmed through both brownie recipes and amended all the "vannila's." I really wonder how Ice managed to misspell so many ingredients he'd normally come across, but can somehow remember how the letters in "ganache" are arranged.

I decided to comb my brownie recipe carefully for any further typos, because I really couldn't leave this job half complete. _There aren't any misspelled words or grammatical errors left, but despite doing my best to cross everything out tidily, it still looks rather messy._ The recipe truly wasn't very long at all, so if I rewrote it to make it cleaner, I should still have enough time to finish everything!

And this was how I ended up being caught smashing walnuts with my boots when Ice returned and opened the door to his room. After rewriting Ice's entire cookbook of notes, there really hadn't been enough time to finish shelling the rest of the walnuts by hand. Upon seeing his walnuts all over the floor, Ice's face somehow grew even stiffer and colder, sending chills up my spine. Unfortunately, my superior evasion and ability to flee battles was useless if Ice was standing in the only exit.


	2. Chapter 2: Another Day of Paperwork

AH-CHOO! I sniffled and rolled over. This chill in my bones won't go away... How can Ice be so ridiculously strong in magic _and_ swordsmanship? Even though I'm the Storm Knight, it's not like I know any wind magic!

_This bright light is so annoying..._ I rolled back over. _Ah...? Light?_ I shot a glance at my clock. _It's almost noon!_ I leaped out from under my wonderfully fluffy covers, grabbed my toothbrush and comb, and nearly missed the person sitting at my desk as I headed for the door.

I blearily squinted at the person for several moments. _God of Light, I beg you. Don't let this be another admirer who snuck into my room again. Although half of those women were actually "admirers" of Earth, and walked into the wrong room instead..._ The person turned their head in my direction. _Oh good. Now that she's seen that this is the Storm Knight's room, she should leave for Earth's room next door._

"Oh! I'm sorry. I was trying not to wake you up. Did you sleep well?"

_This voice was... was... Leaf!_ _Did he come here to watch me sleep?_

"How long have you been here?" I looked towards the window, where it was already bright outside. "You should be patrolling with your platoon right now."

"I heard you sneezing in the hallway yesterday, and your eye bags were darker than usual, even though there isn't anything going on that would generate extra paperwork. I was worried that your cold would grow even worse if you didn't sleep properly, so I've been here since five to make sure you wouldn't try to wake up too early." Leaf laughed. "You still don't lock your door, even after all you turned all those girls into statues when they saw the Storm Knight diligently doing paperwork."

_Of course I wouldn't lock the door! What if someone needed to drop off a stack of completed paperwork or had new forms to turn in? It's not like they can just leave the papers in the hallway!_ I could already make out the shape of another new stack of documents waiting for editing by the doorway.

As I turned around to head to the bathroom so I could brush my teeth, Leaf called out, "I'm going to go check on my platoon and make sure everything is O.K. Remember! Lunch will be in thirty minutes. I'll come back to make sure you go and eat! It's not healthy to stay cooped up in a stuffy room all day. And don't eat anything too heavy, since you're still ill!" I looked back and nodded to show I heard, otherwise Leaf would probably have fretted even more.

After returning from the bathroom, I figured there wasn't enough time before lunch to correct more than a few documents. Since I was running low on ink anyway, I pulled out a small pot and portable stove. Then I filled the pot with water and added several handfuls of walnut hulls and husks from a bag I keep in the cabinet. I was in the middle of amending some of the shorter documents when Leaf considerately came back to ensure I wouldn't starve myself to death.

"Storm, you should go now, before everyone else takes the food you want."

I nodded and finished off the paragraph I was working on. "I was about to leave anyway," I lied. I didn't feel like I could eat more than a few mouthfuls of food at the moment, so I was planning on skipping lunch to correct papers. But if Leaf had noticed I wasn't at lunch, the consequences would be dire if I refused to go with him. When I had nearly reached the door, Leaf suddenly tutted.

"Don't leave a stove on if you're not in the room. Even if your tea gets cold while you're away, you can just heat it up again when you're back. You wouldn't want to start a fire accidentally." He let out a soft scream when he saw the contents of the pot. "Storm! Don't drink this kind of stuff when you're sick! You'll be dehydrated and recover slower!" He made a face at the dark liquid. "Is this even drinkable...?" Leaf opened the window with the clear intent of throwing my precious ink out.

I let out an agonized shriek. "NO! DON'T!"

Leaf jumped; some of the "tea" sloshed out of the pot on to his white gloves. Although my week's supply of ink was saved, I pitied his gloves. The brown stain would be nearly impossible to remove.

"Ah... Sorry. I wasn't planning on drinking that. It's walnut juice ink."

"Oh!" Leaf looked very relieved, then slightly suspicious. "So Ice was mad at you the other day because you smashed his walnuts for ink?"

I quickly defended myself. "No! That was just the fastest way to shell his walnuts! I was going to wash them afterward. I got these hulls and husks from my parents."

Leaf tilted his head and asked curiously. "From your parents?"

"Ah... Yeah." I rubbed the back of my head. "They grow walnuts to sell just outside Leaf Bud City. After shelling the walnuts, they don't have any use for the shells anymore, so I asked them to send me some to make ink. It's one less expense I have to file with the Pope."

Leaf smiled. "It's great that you're on such good terms with your family." The smile turned sad. "I've heard many of the cold-hearted faction's parents were against having them join the selections."

I patted Leaf's shoulder. "Even Judgment's aunt and uncle forgave him in the end. Now we've all grown up into fine adults. I don't think any one of them would be ashamed of us." I paused and smirked. "Although, temple gossip says that Earth receives letters from his parents asking when he'll bring a girlfriend back home."

That elicited a small laugh.

Leaf stayed the whole day, helping me correct the documents that had piled up in the morning while I was asleep. He had managed to convince several of the other knight-captains into allowing the Leaf Knight Platoon to train with them for the day, so his platoon wouldn't be idle. Every now and then, Leaf excused himself and ran out to check their progress and to make sure they were alright. They were lucky, having a captain who looked after them. My vice captain was forced to plan out most of the Storm Knight Platoon's schedule, since I usually had so much to do I wouldn't be able to supervise them directly.

As usual, around nightfall, there was a knock on the door. Leaf wasn't startled by the random knocks now, since several knights had already come throughout the day to drop off finished papers or to pick up new ones.

I called out, "Come in. The door's unlocked," despite the other person being well aware that my door was never locked.

Hell walked in through the door and stopped there for a moment, apparently puzzled by the head of green hair and lack of papers at my desk, until he noticed I was correcting papers while sitting on the bed instead. Leaf told me to take it easy, and because of the lack of another chair in the room and small size of my desk, the only other place to sit and work on documents was my bed. Normally, working like this would be impossible since I would immediately fall asleep among the fluffy blankets. But after sleeping until noon, any fatigue I felt was more likely to be a result from my cold.

Hell picked up a large stack of unamended documents from a corner of the room I'd designated specially for his pile. He nodded once to us and swiftly left my room.

Leaf was surprised. "I didn't think the Hell Knight would have so much paperwork to do. Even the sheaf of trial records Judgment turned in was smaller than that."

I shook my head. "Most of that isn't actually Hell's work. Many people found it unusual that he would be up at four in the morning practicing swordplay. To prevent them from realizing he doesn't need to sleep, he has to stay shut up in his room for the entire night. He's been helping me out for a while now, since he has nothing better to do while he waits for the rest of the Temple to wake up." I sighed while crossing out some redundant lines in paragraph four. "As a result, there's a rumor circulating that the Hell Knight needs a nightlight to sleep. The Hell Knight Platoon caught wind of it and has bought him so many candles that the rumor recently changed to the Hell Knight has an odd fascination with candles." _Blaze probably kicked down Hell's door and misinterpreted the scene again..._

Leaf actually beamed when he heard this. "Remember how set Vice-Captain Tyler and the platoon were against Hell before? Isn't it great that they now care about him so much? It's not even just a grudging respect anymore!"

On the other hand, I smiled wanly. If Hell hadn't gained the acceptance of his platoon, even with Adair agreeing to back Tyler's decision no matter what, Sun might have gone berserk. _And I would have been flooded with the resignation forms for the entire Hell Knight Platoon. After dealing with those, I would have been swarmed with the sign-up sheets for Hell Knight Platoon hopefuls. Thinking about it like this, I'm actually quite grateful it all worked out._ My face relaxed into a more natural smile.

"Yeah. It's great seeing everyone help each other out." I accepted another stack of forms from Leaf.


	3. Chapter 3: Returning a Small Favor

_It's been so long since I've been outside! The fresh air! The open skies!_

I started to skip, slipped, and nearly fell into a puddle. Even that couldn't dampen my mood!

Thanks to Leaf's help three days ago, my workload has been extremely light recently! It's just that the past two days were rainy, so I wasn't able to head outside. Although today's clouds threatened a downpour at any moment, it wasn't raining right now, so why worry?

Of course, I wasn't just out here to enjoy the breeze No matter well-trained my platoon was at gathering information, there were still some things a normal citizen wouldn't tell an ordinary holy knight. As I wandered the streets, eavesdropping on interesting conversations, I couldn't help but praise the weather once more. _This kind of stormy weather is truly the best for the Storm Knight! Not only is the air clean and fresh from the rains, all the girls are indoors staying dry. I haven't had to wink at more than twenty of them in the past hour!_ Unfortunately, if the girls were indoors, much of the populace was too. I wasn't deterred by this, though. My most trustworthy source for city gossip could be relied on, no matter what the weather!

A little bell tinkled as I pushed open the door. A rush of warm air greeted me, which might have been the reason so many people had taken refuge in the bakery at the corner of the Central Market and Main Street. Or more likely, the pastries were just that good. They had clients from the working class to the Twelve Holy Knights. Even Ice sometimes sneakily crept in to buy and sample their new cakes, locking himself up in his room afterward to improve upon their original recipe.

Looking through their cake displays, I sighed. Ice was definitely furious enough that he would be completely unwilling to make me any until he cooled down. Who knew how long that might take? Although the owner of this bakery was none other than Ice's father, his son had definitely surpassed him by now. _But i__nstead of buying cake, I should buy something that will last for a while. Otherwise, without sweets, I'll have nothing to eat when I'm up working in the middle of the night._ I ended up choosing several plain buns.

I lined up in front of the counter with a matronly clerk. While I waited for my turn, I sent a few winks to some of the girls in the other lines and around the shop. I stopped when I noticed a few of their boyfriends/husbands glaring at me.

"Next in line, please." I moved forward.

"Good morning, Clarissa." I shot her a wink. "You grow more radiant each time I come into the shop."

The middle age woman laughed. "Then I must look like a goddess with how often you visit! Though it's rare to see you in here before noon."

I smiled and decided to shoot a few more winks around the bakery. "A man has to look his best before the girls after all. That includes sleeping in. Not getting enough sleep is a huge taboo among beautiful people, you know." _Actually, the real reason I don't come out early in the morning is that if I'm seen alone in the city at that time, people instantly assume I must be sneaking back to the Temple. Then the only gossip I will hear for a week straight are guesses at who the Storm Knight must have been spending a night with._

She chuckled heartily, strands of brown hair coming loose from her neat chignon. "It must be quite nice living such a carefree lifestyle. Oh, and have you heard the news...?"

Sensing that we were going to be chatting for a while, the people in line behind me moved to a different clerk's counter. I felt sorry for troubling them, but there normally wasn't a great number of people at this time, since it should be just late enough that the breakfast customers would have dispersed and left for their jobs.

Most of Clarissa's gossip was ordinary run-of-the-mill speculations about relationships, chatter about rising or decreasing prices, and some information about different performers who would have events in the city soon. But right after some complaints about blueberry prices increasing because they were about to go out of season, Clarissa offhandedly said, "Did you hear the ruckus earlier today? About half the platoon of Leaf Knights were running around hollering at the top of their lungs with ugly expressions on their faces. During their visit to the hospital wards too!"

I was alarmed. Holy knights are supposed to be among the most gracious and elegant of the professions. How could the Leaf Knight Platoon, filled with the nicest knights from the Temple, be shouting like hooligans? "What were they yelling?"

"Who knows? No one could make it out. They only stopped when the Sun Knight Platoon told them to knock it off."

_It was so serious that even the patrolling Sun Knight Platoon had to intervene?! At least it's marginally better than pulling a stunt like that in front of the Judgment Knight Platoon. Vidar can be a softie, but not when the public peace is disturbed._

I thanked Clarissa for the news, paid for my bread and left the bakery.  
~~~

After running back to the Church, I dashed for the bathroom. I didn't need to go, but interrogations should be finished for the morning, and the person I was looking for could be found in the bathroom of the Judge's Complex. If I didn't hurry, he probably would have left by now.

I threw open the door, but stopped short. _Eh? W-Why is Judgment still here? He's even sitting on a stool with sweets on another stool next to him. Don't tell me he feels like having a picnic here?!_

Judgment's head turned towards my direction. _H-He saw me! Even if I run now, there's no use!_

I tried to smile in a friendly and non-intimidating way while making excuses. "A-Ah! It's very damp today and I decided to come in to wash off any mud on me! S-Since it's so wet outside, it makes complete sense you would eat your cookies indoors! Wow! It sure is clean in here! No wonder you would come here to –"

Judgment picked up the basket of confectionery and stood up, staring at me with that overly serious expression. Then he sighed. He walked towards the door, and I quickly jumped out of his way. I didn't relax at all until the echo of his footsteps faded from the hallway. _AHHHH! Judgment looks like he's in an even worse mood than usual! It must be because I found his secret picnicking spot and now he has to find a new place!_ I had a feeling this is one rumor that should definitely stay a secret. _But strange... Judgment doesn't like sweets..._

Different footsteps were approaching the bathroom. I moved even farther away from the bathroom door, in case the owner of those footsteps was an interrogator knight covered in gore.

A jovial voice greeted me. "Ah. Storm Knight! And what could have brought this hermit out of his room? Don't tell me you expect to find _paperwork_ here of all places!"

I unhappily complained, "What took you so long? I rushed here just to find you, and found the Judgment Knight instead! I nearly died of shock!"

This person, the janitor for the Church of the God of Light, is very useful! He cleans up after all the public facilities in the Temple and Sanctuary, so his ears are everywhere. If I need some juicy gossip about specific holy knights without alerting their suspicions, there is no one better to ask than this guy.

"Ohohoho!~ You came looking for me, I see. You should know by now that information never comes without a price!" This sly old man leered at me, but thankfully I had brought along...A bottle of _this!_

I pulled out the container and chanted, "A bottle of the conditioner used by this very own blue head! I guarantee with a month of using this special formula, your balding head will have hair as thick and lustrous as mine! Of course, anyone can tell you've been desperately trying to dye those gray hairs of yours, but no worries. This concoction has been specially developed to restore hair damaged by frequent dyeing –" _Oh shoot!_

Even after seeing the expression on my face, this janitor uncle responded calmly, "Who hasn't figured out that Storm Knight's hair must be dyed? Even if I wanted to use this as blackmail, it would hardly be worth anything!" I sighed with relief.

"But for you to give up such a large jar of your precious conditioner... You must be after something equally valuable, hm?"

"The Leaf Knight Platoon. Have you heard anything... unusual about them recently? I want any and everything you have about them."

Instead of his usual all-knowing smirk, this janitor uncle revealed an odd expression. "The Leaf Knight Platoon? They're some of the cleanest-living people out there, and their captain is nearly a saint. What could they have possibly done for you to be digging up rumors against them?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Don't compare my reasons to the way your scheming mind works! I just want to know why they were acting out of sorts this morning!"

"Oh really?~ Well, I suppose it won't hurt their reputation too badly to let you know those leaf knights have been streaming in and out of their captain's room all morning. Must have started just after you left."

"How do you know when I left?" Although this guy loves grubbing for information, he definitely should not have enough free time on his hands to know exactly when I've exited or entered my room.

"The stack of paperwork in the hallway they knocked over was fairly small. If you'd been gone for over an hour, the papers would have been at least to the height of your door. That's right! Currently, the corridor is half congested with documents! You probably shouldn't have the time to chat with me.~"

I glared at the sneak. "You've hardly told me anything worth the entire jar of conditioner. But it's true that I should be heading back. If you have anything else to say, make it clear and concise."

He adopted a serious face and rattled off, "When the leaf knights came back, it looked like they were carrying something very long and heavy. They were treating it very gingerly, so this probably was a person. Half of the Sun Knight Platoon, who should have been out patrolling, also helped to escort this person. The sun knights left the Temple after seeing the person to the Leaf Knight's room, but the leaf knights have been coming in and out of that room periodically. Even the Sun Knight went to visit."

The only person the Leaf Knight Platoon would take to Leaf's room is Leaf himself. But he didn't seem to be in any shape to stand up and walk back on his own. Even Sun went to visit him... Leaf must be in a serious condition if they had to bring Sun to heal him!

I lobbed the container at the helpful janitor and sprinted away, nearly slipping on some of the damp footprints left in the hallway.  
~~~

_LEAF!_

I was completely prepared to kick down Leaf's door to check his condition, but two of his platoon members were guarding the entrance and blocked me from going in.

"What's going on?!" I glared at the guards.

The one on the left shushed me and answered quietly, "The captain is asleep right now. Please speak more softly."

I nodded quickly and whispered, "No problem." I reached for the doorknob. The knight on the right stopped me.

"We really want Captain to sleep soundly, without any disturbances. We'll tell you when he wakes up and you can see him then."

_When Sun gets seriously injured, he takes several days to wake up. Leaf's recovery ability is definitely not nearly as good. What if he wastes away before he can open his eyes again?_

I opened my mouth to argue with the well-meaning sentries when Adair picked up about half the papers clogging the hall and offhandedly mentioned, "Don't worry, Knight-Captain Storm. I fixed up Knight-Captain Leaf's arm myself. He should be completely fine with a bit of rest."

_Arm? What about the rest of him?_

Seeing my doubtful expression and probably judging (correctly) I was about to argue some more, Adair turned to the leaf knights and said, "Just let Knight-Captain Storm have a quick look. I'm sure he'll be on his way after that."

I nodded in agreement. The leaf knights reluctantly moved away from the door.

Leaf was lying on his bed. Thankfully, I didn't see any traces of blood anywhere, although his face seemed flushed. When I moved closer to take a better look, he shifted and opened his eyes.

_Ah! I woke him up! But that doesn't matter now!_

"Leaf! You're O.K.!" _He's not going to waste away and die!_

The two sentries poked their heads in the doorway and scowled at me, but their faces lit up when they saw their Captain was awake. "CAPTAIN!"

Leaf smiled apologetically. "It looks like I made everyone worry. I'm really sorry about that."

The guard who told me to be quieter said, "No, Captain! It's alright! We're just glad you weren't badly hurt after falling off the roof!" The other guard ran off cheering, probably to tell the other leaf knights the good news.

_Leaf fell off a roof? I can guarantee that someone like Leaf, who takes an average of two seconds to pull out an arrow and fire it at a rapidly moving target, definitely has top-notch reflexes! He should have been able to recover after realizing he was about to fall._

Seeing my frown, Leaf hurriedly assured me, "Don't worry, Storm! I'll stay on the ground the next time I have a headache, so even if I fall, the ground won't be as far off!"

_Headache? And those dark circles around his eyes..._

I stuck my hand on Leaf's forehead. It confirmed my suspicions. "Leaf. You have the flu."

I stared at the leaf knights gathered at the door. "Why would you let Leaf go up on a slippery roof while he's ill?"

They fidgeted nervously. Leaf defended his platoon. "I was fine earlier, so nobody noticed anything! Since one of the nurses complained about the roof leaking in places, I was trying to help them fix that. Everyone else was inside taking care of and cheering up the hospital patients. It's not their fault, Storm..."

"Ah... But it sure was scary seeing Captain fall right past the window of the room I was in." There were several murmurs of agreement among the leaf knights.

"The kid I was visiting nearly had a heart attack, but I told him it was a training exercise for leaf knights."

"Are you serious? What if that kid decides to do some 'leaf knight training' on his own?"

"I nearly tripped over the stairs trying to run down fast enough..."

"I ran into a wall because I was so focused on staring out the window to see if the captain was fine."

"Next time, just apologize to anyone near by, then open the window and jump out. It's the fastest way to get down."

"Oh shoot! We forgot to apologize to the hospital before leaving!" A hush descended over the crowd. Leaf sighed.

I glared at them. "Hurry and go explain this to them! After scaring them so badly, they deserve that at least." _Otherwise I'll end up writing apology notes for all the complaints stemming from the incident._

Those kind-hearted fellows actually sprinted away in their haste to clear up the misunderstanding. Only the door guard knight stayed behind for a moment, watching his captain worriedly.

"Don't worry. I'll watch over your captain. You should go help the others calm down the patients." After hearing this, he nodded and ran off after his comrades.

Leaf sneezed. "Storm, are you sure you're O.K. with that? You probably have a lot of things left to do..."

"After you helped me out a few days ago, my workload has been so light, I even managed to go to sleep at midnight yesterday! Since you helped me when I was sick, now that you're sick, I'll help you." _Although, he most likely picked up that illness when he was lending me a hand._

He smiled. "I'll have to trouble you then." Leaf lay back down and rolled onto his side. "I just want to sleep right now..."  
~~~

After moving the rest of my documents out of the hallway, I spent the rest of the day correcting those in Leaf's room. Leaf spent most of that time asleep, but whenever he woke up, I went to bring back bowls of congee for him to eat. All of them ended up being heavily seasoned, but I comforted myself with the fact that many seasonings had medicinal properties, so they had to be somewhat good for Leaf.

Later, after the sun had long set, I listened to Leaf's even breathing and the pitter patter of the raindrops against his windowpane. It was really a soothing sound, and I began to nod off. After an unknown amount of time, I heard someone calling, "Storm?" softly. I opened my eyes to a dark room. The candle had burned itself out.

"Nn... Leaf?"

Someone shook their head in front of me. "Go to sleep in your own room. Leaf will be fine."

I nodded at the person and stood up to leave. "Your words are so clear and easy to understand today... It's inconceivable." I yawned and walked out.

**A/N:**

? Did they even call the flu the flu back then?

Say hello to the original characters that showed up and don't bully them too badly. Q.Q


	4. Chapter 4: Ready to Attend a Meeting

I woke up the next day and started shuffling through papers as normal. If Sun said Leaf would be fine, he would be fine, and going over to check on Leaf this early would probably disturb his sleep.

I shook my head at the stack of cleric applicant forms. The writer certainly had neat handwriting, but paid little attention to detail, which would be why the forms ended up in my room for amending. I ended up to adding entire sections of additional clarification for people unfamiliar with church terminology, so by the time breakfast rolled around, I was only halfway done.

_I'll go ask Leaf what he wants and get food for both of us._ _He might be awake by now._ I absent mindedly tried to open the door, when a sharp pain shot through my hand. I stuck my entire hand into the pitcher of water on my desk. When the sting had mostly faded, I pulled it out and tried to avoid dripping water on to my desk or papers. The scar on my hand was red and feathery, just like the wounds electrocuted people had on their backs. It vanished completely with a Minor Heal.

Frowning, I tried to figure out why my doorknob managed to upgrade from static shocks to lightning bolts. It was obvious who did this; Sun was the only one capable of using lightning magic. But what exactly had I done to be trapped in my room like this? _Maybe he thought I was slacking off yesterday..._

Since I was stuck here, I just continued correcting the application forms with one hand, using the other to cram a bun I bought yesterday into my mouth. _I have to eat something or I'll starve at the meeting today. It should be a long one, since we'll be discussing any problems that might arise from the area that was just torched by those demon wolves. Too bad I can't skip this one..._ My writing hand froze as I chewed furiously, considering how not being able to open my electrified door might affect my attendance at the meeting.

I broke out into a cold sweat. If Judgment found out I skipped out on this meeting... _I already annoyed him enough yesterday. What if he stops filling out his own paperwork?_ Judgment's trial records usually included details of the interrogation procedure, enough of them that just thinking of trying to read through all of those made my skin crawl. Even now, I still tried to avoid walking through the halls of the Judge Complex while executions or questioning sessions were going on. _Killing people quickly is one thing. Torturing them is another thing entirely._ But Judgment considered each case and punishment so carefully that I could never blame him for his methods, despite how gruesome most of them were...

Wrenching my mind away from the possible consequences of skipping a mandatory meeting, I tried to find an escape route. There were two doors in my room. One led outside and was currently not usable. The other led to my bathroom, which wasn't very helpful right now. I scrutinized my window. It was a lovely window, fairly small but enough to let blessed rays of sunlight illuminate my room during daylight hours, saving me from spending money on extra candles. I opened the window to its fullest and thanked the God of Light for sending some sunshine instead of rain today.

* * *

I was currently staring at my just-small-enough-to-be-useless window in frustration. After spending some time trying to squeeze my shoulders or hips through (depending if I was trying to go head-first or feet-first), I had to conclude it was impossible for me to use the window to leave.

* * *

A leaf knight jogged up to Vice-Captain Storm in the dining hall.

"Caspar, while I was birdwatching -"

Caspar, the Storm Knight's vice-captain, swallowed his sandwich and interrupted his friend. "Where can you even go birdwatching in the Holy Temple?"

"There's this _huge_ patch of bushes at the very back, just outside the captain's quarters. The birds love eating the berries there, and there's so many of them in the morning that I sit there quietly to watch them. But that's not what I came to talk to you about. I swear I saw your captain's legs waving out the window!"

"Are you sure it was _my_ captain? All of the Twelve Holy Knights have rooms right next to each other..."

"The legs were wearing brown knee-high boots."

Caspar nodded. All the other knight captains with high boots wore white ones. After thanking the birdwatcher, he stood up and told the other Storm Knights to meet him by their captain's door, briefing them quietly of the suspicious scenario.

The slightly concerned platoon immediately stood up and wiped the crumbs off their faces as they headed over, already speculating.

"Captain was probably doing something weird. You know how all the other captains have... _quirks_... too."

"Sticking his legs out the window isn't going to help him correct anything. I doubt it's something he normally does."

"Do you think Captain was trying to show off his long legs? His popularity has dropped recently..."

"The only ones who saw were the birds in the bushes and that other guy... Caspar, who gave you this info?"

"... He didn't want to be named, just in case."

"Smart guy," rang a chorus of storm knights. They'd all seen how their captain looked as he stormed the corridors intending to exact revenge on Knight-Captain Sun. None of them ever wanted to see that smile again.

As they approached the Storm Knight's door, they noticed a sign pasted on it and crowded around to read it. It simply said, "Please DO NOT DISTURB."

"Huh. Guess you were right. It _was_ Captain being weird after all. Caspar, you'd better go warn that person to watch his back. With Captain's ability to ferret information, he's probably dead..."

A muffled voice came from the other side of the door. The Storm Knight Platoon simultaneously fell silent, trying to eavesdrop on any conversation that might be going on inside. They heard some muffled vocalizations for a while, and after a pause, it was replaced a steady knocking noise against the wall next to the door.

Something was definitely strange.

"Let's go in." Caspar suggested after around the fifteenth knock. Everyone else nodded bravely. If they would face the captain's wrath, they would do it together.

The storm knight closest to the door reached for the doorknob and suddenly jumped back.

Their Vice-Captain frowned. "What's wrong?"

The storm knights closest to the door swiveled their heads to reply, "There's lightning on the doorknob!"

One of the storm knights curiously poked the door frame a few times and offered, "The door frame gives off static shocks, so it's probably more than just the doorknob that's electrified. It'd be a bad idea to break down that door."

"Try the window, then." A storm knight close to the wall commented and tapped back on the wall. The room's occupant fell silent.

The platoon went around and outside to the back of the Twelve Holy Knight's quarters. Everyone was surprised to see neat, orderly rows of bushes, clearly pruned and weeded frequently. They did their best not to trample the short shrubs.

Counting the number of windows they passed carefully, the storm knights assembled in front of what should be the correct window and furiously knocked against the glass. It shot open almost immediately.

* * *

My hopes had wildly soared when I heard people outside my door, especially when someone seemed to knock back in reply. The silence after that was nerve-shattering. Each minute that passed was brought me closer and closer to resorting to either skipping the meeting or kicking down a wall to break out.

So when someone actually banged against the window pane, I was elated at being able to communicate with someone from the outer world.

For some reason, my entire platoon backed away as fast as they could when they saw my beaming face appear at the window. The poor bushes didn't stand a chance against the destructive capabilities of my stampeding platoon. Thankfully, Ice had already stripped the branches of berries, which should spare my platoon from becoming popsicles in the near future.

"Come back! This is an order!" _I'm still stuck here!_

They fell into formation outside the window, with expressions like they had resigned themselves to some horrible fate.

"I can't leave my room. There's some type of lightning magic on the door, and this window is too small for me to fit through. Tell the other Twelve Holy Knights I will be late to the meeting, and find someone to remove the magic on the door."

Caspar was the only one who dared to move to nod. "But Captain... You weren't the one who put the sign on your door?"

I blinked. "There's a sign? What does it say?"

"It said, 'Please do not disturb.' We would have assumed you were busy if you hadn't tapped on the wall."

"I wasn't the one who hung the sign up..." Suddenly, I began to have an idea what might have happened. "Do you have any way of determining whether a door has lightning on it without shocking yourselves?"

My platoon seemed much more relaxed by this point, despite the strange question.

Caspar reported, "The doorknob has miniature bolts playing across it, and the door frame can give off a static discharge, but not enough to injure anyone."

"In that case, see if Knight-Captain Leaf's door also displays these signs. If they do, find Knight-Captain Sun and remind him to visit Knight-Captain Leaf. That is all."

They left in a hurry, muttering things like, "When I saw that smile, I thought we were dead for sure!" and "Why are the captain's rooms nearly soundproof anyway?"

There wasn't much I could do besides wait for them to find Sun. If my suspicions were right, he was the one who placed the sign on my door. After noticing Leaf and I had been sick, he probably wanted us to sleep in peace and spelled the doors, then forgot to remove them. I checked the time. Actually... Sun probably wasn't even awake yet. I proofread the documents I would have to present at the meeting.

The air popped and something let off a very bright flash of light as my fragmented door slammed against the opposite wall. Something else fell with a thud outside my now empty doorway. I ran over and carefully flipped Blaze, the person lying in front of my doorway, into a more comfortable position. It took him a minute or two to snap out of his stunned state, jump up, and pat his fluffy new afro. He grinned broadly.

"That paper on your door was right! Kicking your door wasn't boring at all this time! See ya, Ceo!" He sprinted down the hall, smashing a few cabinet doors in along the way.

At least he had the tact not to kick down Leaf's door, despite the identical "Please DO NOT DISTURB" sign.

* * *

**A/N:** It's a little strange giving people names. But it would have been stranger not having people refer to Vice-Captain Storm by name. Most holy knights call Adair, Tyler and Vidar by name, including the captains. Thanks to Iris Frostbite, anonymous commenter on lucathia's A Vice Captain's Tale, who pointed out the "r" ending pattern on vice-captain names! (They also seem to have two syllable names, so I nearly named Storm's vice-captain Paper.)

*Also, according to V6C1, Sun meets with Judgment in the bathroom as the sun is about to set. Sorry about the inaccuracy in the previous chapter.


End file.
